Amazon is crushing Microsoft's ambitious IoT goal of providing both a platform and front-end for ambient computing with its aggressive Alexa-driven strategy.
Computing is shifting from a device-focused to ambient-computing paradigm. Ambient computing is where computers of various shapes and sizes are part of our environments, as Internet of Things (IoT) devices that can perceive us and respond to our commands.
Many tasks that have historically been done on smartphones are now being done via smart speakers like Amazon's Echo. With 50,000 "skills" and integration with a growing list of apps and businesses, Amazon's digital assistant, Alexa, is the industry-leading ambient computing device. Its position is so pervasive that Microsoft recently began piggy-backing its less-popular digital assistant Cortana on the consumer-focused Amazon Echo.
Ambient computing, via billions of IoT devices on the intelligent edge, is expected to become the norm in the coming years. Thus, Microsoft developed an ambitious two-pronged strategy to secure its future. Via a platform approach, it's providing infrastructure-building industry tools, like Azure IoT Hub and Azure Sphere, that will enable and secure ambient computing. Microsoft's "front-end" to this strategy is the unreleased Home Hub. Home Hub reportedly aims to turn Windows 10 PCs into smart-home-connected, Cortana-powered smart speakers with screens. While we wait for this to show up, Amazon is putting Alexa into everything from microwaves to clocks.
Time may be running out for Microsoft.
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